{"id":8019,"date":"2016-05-08T18:57:06","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T00:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8019"},"modified":"2016-05-08T18:59:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T00:59:13","slug":"western-polytheists-have-a-long-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8019","title":{"rendered":"Western Polytheists Have a Long Way to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/taboo\/videos\/funeral-strippers\/embed\/\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nFor example, at our funerals, where are the dragon dancers? The all-female marching bands?<a href=\"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/taboo\/videos\/funeral-strippers\/\"> <em>The strippers?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I want it to be boistrous. My father liked this kind of atmosphere.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These Taiwanese make a New Orleans funeral look positively Lutheran.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s much the same in mainland China, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/04\/24\/401896663\/chinas-latest-target-funeral-strippers\">where the spicy-funeral custom is drawing the attention of the ever-vigilant government.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Take the outdoor funeral for an 86-year-old man surnamed Huang in central China&#8217;s Henan province in December 2012. A woman in a short, white skirt and halter top pulls a mourner on stage and begins to undress him, while periodically peeling off a piece of her own clothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sex and death, baby. Keep turning the wheel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For example, at our funerals, where are the dragon dancers? The all-female marching bands? The strippers? &#8220;I want it to be boistrous. My father liked this kind of atmosphere.&#8221; These Taiwanese make a New Orleans funeral look positively Lutheran. And it&#8217;s much the same in mainland China, where the spicy-funeral custom is drawing the attention [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[203,96,40],"class_list":["post-8019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-china","tag-death","tag-polytheism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-25l","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2347,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2347","url_meta":{"origin":8019,"position":0},"title":"An Old-Fashioned Funeral","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In the southern Colorado town of Crestone, a woman gets an old-fashioned funeral. Belinda Ellis' farewell went as she wanted. One by one, her family placed juniper boughs and logs about her body, covered in red cloth atop a rectangular steel grate inside a brick-lined hearth. With a torch, her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8060,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8060","url_meta":{"origin":8019,"position":1},"title":"Thoughts after a Funeral","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A member of my little rural volunteer fire department died last week at the age of 47.((It was not a line-of-duty death; other causes)) So the chief, the treasurer, and I put on our rarely worn dress uniforms for the funeral \u2014 M. came too \u2014 and we went off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":534,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=534","url_meta":{"origin":8019,"position":2},"title":"Seventy-two Virgins","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Religious Policeman,\" my favorite Saudi expatriate blogger, has some ideas about the 72 virgins that supposedly await Muslim martyrs. His posting is just more fallout from an Arab-language television program that frankly uncovers the link between sex (or lack of sex) and martyrdom. More here, including a quote from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Aphrodite\"","block_context":{"text":"Aphrodite","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=aphrodite"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6887","url_meta":{"origin":8019,"position":3},"title":"A New &#8216;Guide&#8217; for Lithuanian Romuva","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Jonas Trinkunas, the leader of Lithuania's Romuva Pagan movement, died last January \u2014 click here for video of his funeral. His successor as \"guide\" has now been elected: Kriva Inija Trinkuniene. Inija Trinkuniene was born in 1951\u00a0 . . . in 1969 graduated from high school in 1974 . .\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Lithuania\"","block_context":{"text":"Lithuania","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=lithuania"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alkas.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Trinkuniene.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alkas.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Trinkuniene.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alkas.lt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Trinkuniene.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6240,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6240","url_meta":{"origin":8019,"position":4},"title":"Pentagram Pizza from Rome&#8217;s Enemy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 The word went around last week of the passing of Jonas Trinkunas (1939\u20132014), founder of the revived Lithuanian Pagan group Romuva. This Lithuanian website has video of his funeral ceremony,\u00a0everyone in archaic ritual gear, lots of singing and drumming. (Video may be slow to load.) \u00b6 \"Perhaps the future\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Africa\"","block_context":{"text":"Africa","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=africa"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagrampizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":62,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=62","url_meta":{"origin":8019,"position":5},"title":"&#8216;Ghosts&#8217; in print","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 6, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"My essay \"Ghosts\" has been published in the November issue of Colorado Central magazine. Naturally, I'm delighted that the editors, Ed and Martha Quillen, liked it, even though it is probably more \"literary\" than their usual editorial mixture.I wrote it last May, composing parts in my head while driving the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8021,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8019\/revisions\/8021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}